In The Past
by FadingMoonlight
Summary: While preparing his newest puppet, Sasori spots something that reminds him of times past...


**Notes-** Written for a contest on Mibba :)

I don't own Deidara or Sasori or any other characters mentioned

Enjoy!

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Sasori growled lightly. He'd sent his overly hyper teammate away sometime ago, but he could still hear Deidara yelling random things at him through the temple's thin walls. The annoying blond didn't understand the puppeteers's work and didn't like waiting while Sasori prepared. Normally Sasori's patience would have long since run out as well—patience never being one of his strong points—but he sacrificed his time for his art. Creating something to withstand the test of time took time to create as well.

The corpse Sasori had strung upside down in the center of the room rocked as Deidara took his unhappiness out on some boulder or other. His poor excuse of art. Sasori swore to kill the blond whenever he found a good enough reason that Pein would understand.

In the meantime, Sasori sidestepped the blood the rocking splashed out of the designated pan and stilled the corpse. The blood would flow better with less movement, there being no beating heart to push it through the dead veins. Sasori watched as the gore left the man's body by means of the slit wrists. He would perform the actual jutsu that would harden the man's flesh, as well as fill the corpse with gears and weapons, later. For now the corpse had to be stored, a task easier done without the congealing red liquid in his veins.

Sasori was still getting impatient, despite the knowledge that great art takes time. He should have left the man alive; a beating heart would have halved the time this takes. Instead, he took his kunai and opened more exits for the blood to take.

The corpse's finger glinted and Sasori noted a gold ring. With all the respect not to break his potential puppet's finger Sasori removed it. It looked solid. Gold, tough, maybe 14K. Sasori pocketed it, his mind calculating what he could get out of Kakuzu for it.

As his fingers slipped over the rounded edges Sasori found his mind jumped at the chance to slip away from the present—and the constant background noise of Deidara.

Sasori himself had almost been engaged once. It wasn't out of love or any similar feeling usually accompanying marriage. When he was fifteen someone had decided Sasori needed something more in his life than his puppets. It must have been someone important if they managed to convince his grandmother Chiyo a wife was a suitable idea for him.

She'd been a nice enough girl, he remembered from the few times he's met her. While not amazingly beautiful, she hadn't been hideous either. Dirty blond hair that fell in waves, big hazel eyes and she was always smiling. That's all he really remembered of her. She had tried to get him the least bit interested in her during the negotiations. Sasori had acknowledged her attempt in the best way he knew how.

He immortalized her.

Sasori had already been contemplating his leaving from the Sand Village at that point. The village had let him down and he couldn't forgive it. There was nothing in that desert for him. The plan for his engagement had been the final straw. Having something—or someone—tying him to that useless village was the last thing he wanted.

His would be fiancée had given an honest effort to get into his cold heart. He would admit that he respected her for that. With that respect in mind he'd taken her with him when he left; an action similar to what any actual husband would do. He'd used her not-beautiful-not-hideous corpse to create a gorgeous puppet.

She made a magnificent puppet. Her blond hair became a head of wires able to stretch up to twenty feet. Those big eyes she'd batted in his direction became twin bulbs that cried poisoned gas on command. He'd turned that smile she flashed constantly into a magnificent sneer of knives. Sasori had altered all the feminine features she'd been proud of into miraculous weapons of death and destruction. Pure beauty.

Of course, being one of his first puppets, she wasn't one of his most immaculate works. She looked good, but she was clunky and slow; her gears often seizing up with bits of flesh that hadn't been cured properly. When Sasori remembered to clean her regularly she was an excellent flaying machine though; great when Sasori and Deidara needed to quietly spread remains to avoid being caught in a bad position.

Sasori had learned a lot installing all her mechanisms. Experience he would now use to create another ultimate work of art with the man in front of him. He kind of wished Deidara hadn't used his poor excuse of art to completely demolish all the other people that had been at the temple when they'd stormed in. He could have used a few more subjects to add to his collection. Unfortunately this had been the only corpse left intact enough to be of any use.

Sasori noted with some satisfaction that the dribbling had stopped. He cleaned up, easily stored the corpse in a scroll for finishing later and prepared to deal with Deidara again, banishing any thoughts of his past life. They were of no use to him.


End file.
